Bluewater Target: The 15th Novel in the Caribbean Mystery and Adventure Series (Bluewater Thrillers)

by Charles Dougherty

Berger was well known in the international arms trade. He operated on a scale beyond Delaney's wildest ambitions.

  Berger's people were working with a cartel run by a woman, or so Montalba thought. Delaney doubted that; it didn't fit Berger's reputation. Even so, the woman's cartel intrigued Delaney. She could be behind Montalba's death. If so, she could solve Delaney's problem.

  What was her name? Delaney wondered. It was Hispanic. Delaney decided he would ask his old friend, the ex-senator. Although William O'Toole was in prison, Delaney was sure that a man like that would have some contact with the outside, just as Montalba had.

  O'Toole knew too much, in Montalba's opinion. He might talk to secure a better deal for himself in prison. Montalba had ordered Delaney to have O'Toole killed.

  When Montalba died, Delaney canceled the hit on O'Toole. He and O'Toole owed one another favors. Delaney would have Larry Thompson arrange to communicate with O'Toole. Maybe he knew the woman's name.

  6

  "My turn," Dani said, as she squeezed behind the helm and sat next to Liz. "How's everything up here?"

  "Glorious," Liz said. "We've not dropped below nine and a half knots for my whole watch, and I've hardly had to touch the helm."

  "You don't have the autopilot on?"

  "No. She's balanced well. You know I don't like the autopilot. Why do you even ask?"

  "Because of the track on the chart plotter; it was arrow-straight, like somebody marked it with a ruler."

  "No," Liz said. "Vengeance has done that all by herself. Too bad about the storm; we won't get much more sailing like this."

  "Well, I don't know. We'll see."

  "What's the latest weather fax show in the way of development?" Liz asked. "Didn't I hear you downloading one while you were logging our position just now?"

  "Yes. The storm system could still come apart, just break up into a bunch of violent squalls. The text forecast was noncommittal, but reading between the lines, they think it will consolidate a few hundred miles southwest of Bermuda in the next couple of days. If that happens, it'll be ugly."

  "What's our ETA at the north end of the Mona Passage?"

  "Twelve and a half hours, according to the GPS," Dani said. "But I'd say closer to fourteen or fifteen. We'll slow down when we get in the wind shadow of Puerto Rico."

  "Sometime around sunrise, then," Liz said. "Maybe we'll learn more about the weather by then."

  "Well, maybe. If I had to call it now, I'd pass on the offshore route. Even if the storm system disintegrates, the sea state will be nasty, and there will still be some big squalls."

  "So," Liz said, "our decision is whether to take the Old Bahama Channel or skirt the eastern edge of the Bahama Bank, then."

  "That's how I see it. I don't think Marie will cast a vote either way; she'll let us make the call."

  "It surprised me how nervous she seemed about venturing offshore," Liz said. "I think of her as fearless."

  "You said it the other day; there's a difference in being brave and being fearless. She's brave, for sure."

  "No doubt about that," Liz said. "I'm sure she'd take the offshore route if that were our choice, and she'd be cool about it, outwardly. I was just surprised by that side of her personality."

  "She's comfortable with us, I guess. Willing to let her guard down," Dani said. "On a different subject, I've been thinking about whether we should clear into the States in Puerto Rico."

  "Okay," Liz said. "You want to talk about it?"

  "Well, yes. If we're going to skip the offshore route, it would give us more flexibility in terms of our east-coast landfall. We wouldn't have to restrict ourselves to customs ports of entry."

  "I hadn't thought of that, but does it matter?"

  "I don't know. I was looking for a way to recoup some of the lost time. Missing out on the offshore route will delay us."

  "We are not taking the offshore route?" Marie asked, appearing in the companionway opening. She stood on the ladder, her chin level with the bridge deck, rubbing her eyes.

  "Good!" Liz said. "You're awake. We were just discussing the weather and the choices we have."

  "Yes?" Marie asked, climbing into the cockpit and taking a seat. "So the storm is coming, then?"

  "We still aren't sure," Dani said. She filled Marie in on their current thinking.

  Marie nodded as she listened to Dani and Liz describing their thoughts on the best route from the Mona Passage to the Chesapeake. "Okay," she said, "I will go with your decision on this. You have the experience. I am along for the ride."

  "But this is your charter," Dani said, "so your requirements matter. Liz and I don't think the offshore route will be faster, even if the storm doesn't strengthen. It will still be sloppy out there."

  "I understand. This makes sense. We go to the Mona Passage and then choose the next part. One way is not faster than the other, from there. Is this correct?"

  "Yes," Liz said. "That's right."

  "But when I came up, I heard you mention ports of entry on the East Coast, Dani."

  "I know you want to get moving on the reconnaissance, so I've been trying to think of ways to speed things along."

  Marie frowned. "And what do ports of entry have to do with this?"

  "I had the same question," Liz said.

  "We're going right by Mayagüez, Puerto Rico," Dani said. "We'll be within a few miles. We can swing in there and clear into the U.S. As long as we don't stop in any other countries along the way, we can make our landfall anywhere on the East Coast of the U.S. without clearing in again."

  "But if we take the Old Bahama Channel Route, we'll go right by Miami," Liz said. "I don't understand."

  "I was thinking about Miami when this occurred to me," Dani said. "It's a pain to clear in there. It can take the better part of a day, once you factor in transportation to and from customs and immigration. Then I realized it's the same at a lot of other places along the East Coast. Or you have to call them and wait for them to show up."

  Marie frowned. "We could handle this somewhere on the Chesapeake, no? Why were you thinking about Miami to begin with?"

  "Well, I was struggling with this whole weather mess: the delay, and how to make up time. If we do take the Old Bahama Channel, we swing right by Miami, and from there, it's maybe three or four days straight up the Gulf Stream to where we're going — a fast, easy trip, with a favorable current of three or four knots added to our boat speed."

  "Right," Liz said. "I'm still missing something."

  "I could catch a plane in Miami," Dani said.

  Marie and Liz looked at one another.

  "Stop acting like I'm nuts," Dani said. "I'm trying to make up some of the delay. I could start on the financial stuff."

  "How would your catching a plane in Miami make up time?" Liz asked.

  "If I flew from Miami to New York, I'd have three days to check up on rumors in the banking community while the two of you rode the Gulf Stream north," Dani said. "Rumors about SpecCorp's cash flow problem, I mean. Maybe I'd have an answer by the time you two get to the Chesapeake."

  "I see," Marie said.

  "That's a possibility," Liz said. "But dropping you off in Miami will cost us another day or two. It's out of the way. And it'll leave us short-handed for the last leg of the trip — the one with the most traffic, at that."

  "That's so," Dani said. "If we didn't go into Miami, we'd head north up the eastern edge of the Stream."

  "And that's the better way to go, anyway," Liz said.

  "Why is the eastern edge better?" Marie asked.

  "The wind is steadier out there," Liz said. "You don't get disturbances blowing off the East Coast. They stop like magic when they hit the west wall of the stream, most of the time. Something about the change in sea-surface temperature, I guess."

  "But aren't you still sailing along the East Coast, just a few miles farther from land?" Marie asked.

  "More than a few miles," Liz said. "The Gulf Stream can be between forty and a hundred miles wide, depe
nding on how far north you are. Along the southern part, we'd be sailing along the western edge of the Bahamas. That puts us a minimum of 40 miles off the East Coast. And the U.S. shoreline falls away to the west as you go north. It comes back out to meet the Stream up around Cape Hatteras, in North Carolina."

  "But what about the weather out there?" Marie asked.

  "There is that," Dani said. "But if you're hugging the East Coast, you get some rough stretches where the ocean swell runs into the shallows."

  "She's right; the ride's better farther out," Liz said. "And you're only a day's run from safe harbor if you're a hundred miles out. You can still find a place to hide if there's a serious storm coming."

  "What about your banking contacts, Dani?" Marie asked. "Can you do that by telephone?"

  "Yes. But it would be better in person. I can make a few calls, though, and get started. You've made some good points about the Miami notion, Liz. It was just an idea."

  "We don't have to give up on it yet. I agree with your suggestion that we should clear in at Mayagüez, anyway. That'll be faster. Then you can make calls and see what you find out when we get a little closer. If you need a face-to-face meeting, there are several places we could drop you off along the East Coast if we need to."

  "Why would you not call these people now, Dani?" Marie asked.

  "I could, but I think it would be better to wait at least until we're within a day of the coast. I can pave the way on the phone, but I won't get the same quality of information as I would if I were sitting across the table. What they don't say might be more important than what they do; reading their body language is critical. So it would be better to wait. That way, if I get a good lead, I can schedule a meeting in a day or two — strike while the iron is hot. If I start now, it won't buy me much; it might even hurt my chances of learning something."

  "And it would feed the rumor mill," Liz said.

  "I forget that both of you have worked in the financial business," Marie said. "It is not how I think of you. This is an area of expertise where you may help me, besides the sailing."

  "Well, now that we've got that sorted, I should go get started on our dinner," Liz said.

  "Okay," Dani said. "I have the watch."

  "I will go below and help Liz, if this is all right," Marie said.

  "Sure," Dani said. "I'm fine up here. This is easy sailing."

  "What a nice evening for dinner in the cockpit," Marie said. Liz was still in the galley, putting the finishing touches on their meal. Marie had come up to fold out the cockpit table and set it. "This is a nice thing to do. Do you have dinner out here every evening?"

  "No, sadly," Dani said. "It's a luxury we're enjoying thanks to your being with us."

  "Thanks to me?" Marie smoothed the linen table cloth over the varnished teak surface and set out the silverware. "But I am only setting the table. Liz has done the work."

  Dani laughed. "We can't have a sit-down dinner when it's just the two of us to stand watches. We only see each other for a few minutes, then. Only when we change watch."

  "Oh, I understand. Because I take a watch, you have more time for this, yes?"

  "Yes. Otherwise, we only have time to sail and sleep. Maybe we share a cup of tea or a quick sandwich when we change watch, but that's it."

  "I didn't think about that. This is why Liz said a third crew member is the difference between work and fun."

  "That's right," Dani said.

  "But when you have regular charter guests, you don't do this?"

  "Most of our guests want to stop somewhere for the night, so no, we don't. Not when we're hopping from one island to the next. But sometimes we get hardcore sailors who want to cover lots of miles. They usually want to stand watches, too, so we can do this with them."

  "Dani?" Liz called from below.

  "Yes?"

  Liz appeared in the companionway opening, standing on the ladder. "I just checked our email after I put the dorado on the stove. Connie and Paul want us to call them as soon as we can."

  "I thought they had a charter," Dani said. "They're in Antigua, aren't they?"

  "Yes, but they talked to Phillip and he told them what we're doing. She said they have something important to tell us."

  "Do we have time to call her before dinner?"

  "Sure; I'll take the fish off the stove. Everything else will be okay. Get her on the phone and I'll join you in a second." Liz dropped back down into the galley.

  "What could this be?" Marie asked. She watched Dani take the satellite phone out of the small locker in the steering pedestal.

  Dani shrugged and pressed the phone's power button. "I don't know." She watched the phone's display, waiting for it to acquire a satellite.

  By the time she had a signal, Liz joined them. Dani scrolled through the phone's directory. "I should call on their sat phone, right?"

  "She didn't say," Liz said. "That would be my guess, though."

  Dani placed the call and switched the phone to speaker mode. Connie answered on the second ring.

  "Vengeance?"

  "Yes," Dani said. "Hi, Connie. You're on the speaker with Liz and Marie. Can you talk?"

  "Hold on for a second," Connie said.

  They heard a muted conversation in the background, and then Connie said, "Had to excuse myself and leave Paul to entertain our guests. I'm making my way up to the foredeck where I can talk."

  "Sorry to interrupt you, but your email made it sound urgent," Liz said.

  "That's okay; it may be urgent. I'll need to watch what I say, so ask plenty of yes or no questions to clarify things, okay?"

  "Okay. What's happening?" Dani asked.

  "Phillip told us about your charter when we called him a little while ago. He thought we should pass something along to you. You remember my long-lost cousin?"

  "The undercover DEA guy?" Marie asked.

  "Yes. We got an email from him wanting to know if anyone was trying to get in touch through us."

  All three women frowned. Then Dani smiled and said, "Is someone looking for you? Is that what you're trying to tell us?"

  "Yes, sort of. They're just asking about it, so far."

  "Somebody's asking questions about you? Or us?" Liz asked.

  "Yes. More about me. Something about that business I was in once. But maybe about you, too."

  "About your rumored cartel?" Dani asked.

  "Exactly."

  "Did your cousin know who was asking?" Dani asked.

  "Not yet, not for sure. But he thinks it may be the other people. Not the original client, but the people who worked for him."

  "SpecCorp?" Marie asked.

  "Yes. Anyway, Phillip thought you should know sooner rather than later, given how attached you are to them."

  "Yes. Thank you," Marie said.

  "You're welcome. That's all I know right now, but my cousin will be in touch as he learns more. I'd better get back to our guests. They've got a dive trip booked for tomorrow, so leave your phone on and I'll call you sometime between eight and nine in the morning. Hope you're having a nice sail."

  "It's lovely now," Liz said, "but the forecast is iffy."

  "Well, stay safe. Talk to you tomorrow."

  "Tell Paul hello, and thanks again," Dani said.

  "Yes. Bye for now." There was a click when Connie disconnected.

  "The cousin with the DEA," Marie said. "Leon Contreras. He is the one who was working to catch Montalba, yes?"

  "Yes," Dani said. "If SpecCorp's asking around about Connie, that can't be good."

  "What is this about Connie and a cartel?" Marie asked. "I only have heard parts of this story."

  "Well," Liz said, "that's a long story. Dani, why don't you get started on it while I go finish our dinner."

  7

  "That was fast," Marie said. "Mayagüez was a good idea, Dani."

  "It was," Liz said. "Glad you thought of it."

  Dani smiled. "Any chance of coffee, now that we're under way again?"

  "Sure
," Liz said. "I think I'll join you. Would you like some, Marie?"

  "Are we keeping our same watch schedule?" Marie asked.

  "We may as well," Dani said, "unless you two want to change it. We were only in Mayagüez for half an hour. I'm okay to stand watch until one, and that will keep us in the same rotation. Just an hour later."

  "I will agree with that," Marie said, "but then I will not take coffee. I should go below and get some sleep."

  "Connie will call soon," Dani said. "It's almost nine; she said she'd call between eight and nine. If you want to stay up here until she calls, I'll stay on watch a little longer so you can get a good rest."

  "You will be all right with this?" Marie asked, stifling a yawn.

  "Sure. I'm fine. I just woke up as we were turning into Mayagüez. I don't have any trouble staying alert during the daylight hours, anyway."

  "Okay, then. I will wait to hear what Connie has to tell us. I still should not take the coffee, though."

  "Good," Liz said. "Two coffees, coming up." She went below, leaving Dani and Marie in the cockpit.

  "I've been thinking about what you told me last night about Connie and this cartel story of hers. I didn't know she had been in a business that was laundering drug money," Marie said. "You said that was where she got the cartel idea?"

  "That's right. She was a partner in that business, years ago; it was a weight-loss clinic, of all things. She didn't know about the money laundering when she got involved. Her partner got that going. He may not have known at first, either."

  "How could that be?"

  "He and Connie had the idea for the clinic. He was a doctor, an M.D., who worked in a weight-loss clinic before, out in California. Connie lived in the same area. She was working as a kind of personal appearance consultant. I'm not sure how they knew one another, but they figured out that the two businesses had a lot in common. They appeal to the same kind of customer.

  "They went into business together. Their idea was to open a chain of full-service clinics that would do start-to-finish makeovers. Weight loss, fitness counseling, cosmetic surgery, personal grooming, clothes, everything."